Stop Reading the Bunny Suit

In our fast-changing world, high tech and low tech are constantly colliding. At a recent presentation touting the growth of mobile computing, Intel Corp. chief strategist Chris Thomas had a couple great examples of that:

1) You know those clean room bunny suit workers Intel puts in its commercials? You’d think everything these people touch would be the epitome of high tech. But actually, Thomas said, until recently, these clean room workers would walk around taking readings off machines and writing down the numbers — on the sleeves of their bunny suits.

“We got a 75 percent reduction in errors when we got them to stop reading the bunny suit” and gave them handheld computers on which to record the readings, Thomas said.

Thomas also told an anecdote about car salesmen in Korea who had seen a dramatic revenue increase once they were able to close the deal and approve a loan using a wireless device, right out there on the lot.

Because, as every used car salesman knows, “You never let the customer leave the lot.”